Hyderabad continues to attract hundreds of Muslim students from Gujarat every academic year even a decade after the country’s worst communal riots in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning episode.
Many Muslim families in Gujarat believe Hyderabad is a safe place for their children to pursue education in a peaceful atmosphere, free of communal bias. Moreover, the special economic package offered by the Andhra Pradesh government to Muslim students, coupled with four per cent reservations, has been attracting poor Gujarati Muslims to Hyderabad and other cities in the state.
Rough estimates put the number of Gujarati Muslim students in various educational institutions in the state to about 2,000 including 400 in professional colleges. Not only do these students avail of the fee reimbursement scheme, they also get scholarships from the Central and state governments.
Soon after the Gujarat riots in February 2002, about 1,000 Muslim students, including many whose parents were killed, were rehabilitated in a few schools in Hyderabad. The Muslim Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation, the Hyderabad Zakat and Charitable Trust that is managed by Mr Ghiasuddin Babukhan, the Salama School and several Muslim charitable and educational bodies took the initiative to provide them with education. Some of these students have left for Gujarat after secondary education, while a majority of them are pursuing higher education in engineering, medicine, pharmacy, and business management streams.
Says 20-year-old Abdul Sattar, a student pursuing pharmacy in a local college, “I came to Hyderabad four years after the riots as my parents wanted me to study in peace. I feel secure here and there is no communal fear in the city. Moreover, the standards here are quite high. Now I am a local student and get the economic benefits offered to Muslim students by the state government.”
Mansur Parvez, 21, too is a victim of the communal carnage. He was brought to the city by a philanthropist organisation, Salama Educational Society, in 2004. He completed his SSC at the Salama School, Intermediate at New Quantum Junior School, and is now pursuing B.Tech in an engineering college.
Recalling the worst-ever communal carnage in the history of Independent India, Parwez says he was studying in Class VIII in a Gujarati-medium government school in Ahmedabad. After the riots, he couldn’t continue his education for almost two years till the Salama Educational Society brought him to Hyderabad.
“I just want to forget those sad times. I am happy in Hyderabad and people are good here. When I came to the city, I barely spoke English and knew only Gujarati and a bit of Hindi/Urdu. Though I had done my Class VIII in Gujarat, I joined here in the Class VII in an English medium school,” he says.
Explaining why some Gujarati Muslims still prefer Hyderabad, social worker and religious scholar Moulana Hafiz Shujat Hussain said the economic benefits being offered to Muslims in Andhra Pradesh has made all the difference. “Our students have benefited from the fee reimbursement and scholarship schemes. This has given such a great psychological advantage to poor Muslims in the state that Muslim parents in other states too want to avail of the benefit. They do not hesitate before sending their children here,” the Moulana said.
Like many other students hit by riots, Mohammad Moin had to struggle a lot to learn English, Telugu and Hindi. “But thanks to our teachers, we got more than 70 per cent marks in SSC. There were many students who came to the city along with me. Most of them have returned. Some of them had completed B.Com and B.Sc in Hyderabad,” he said.
“We have been visiting our parents in Gujarat twice a year. We would love to stay in AP. But we miss our parents and siblings,” say most of the students who are currently here. Dr Mohammad Ifthikharuddin of Mesco said, “During 2002-03, we brought around 250 students from different parts of Gujarat. They were from different age groups. We educated them till matriculation and later, some of them returned to Gujarat. We were told that some of them stayed back for higher education here.”
